


Moments Ago and Seconds Away

by misura



Category: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27578600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "You should tell me I'm the most beautiful thing you've ever set eyes on. Like a sunrise," Bran said."I've seen some very pretty sunrises." Will grinned as Bran scowled at him.(Will, Bran and memories)
Relationships: Bran Davies/Will Stanton
Comments: 19
Kudos: 68
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Moments Ago and Seconds Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malinaldarose (coralysendria)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/gifts).



It was strange and not always pleasant, to stay with Bran and watch him forget, but Will told himself it would be even less pleasant still to leave and then return and find that Bran did not remember him at all. He knew the thought to be selfish, and so, in an odd way, he felt it was only fair that he no longer enjoyed spending time with Bran quite as much as he once had.

The valley was beautiful, peaceful now that the Dark had been defeated.

Bran did no more recall that it had once been different than he did his own part in the battle, John Rowlands's judgment, or even his own choice, in the end, to stay.

"I don't think I ever said, but your Welsh is really good," Bran said. "Even the way you pronounce my name."

They were not allowed to be idle; there was too much work to be done for that. They were allowed to do the work together though, so most of the time, it did not feel much like work at all.

"For an English boy, I mean," Bran added. His eyes were hidden behind his dark glasses, but Will could picture them looking at him, a little amused, waiting for his reaction.

Will swallowed. He had not, quite, imagined Bran would even forget this, which had had nothing to do with the Light or the Dark at all. It was why he had stayed, of course, because he had been afraid that Bran might, but it was altogether a different thing to only be afraid of something happening and having that something actually happen.

"Thank you," he said, feeling awkward, as if he was taking credit for something that was none of his own doing.

Bran held his head in a way Will knew meant he was frowning. He did not know what he would say if Bran would ask him, or even what Bran's question would be, to pierce through this new awkwardness between them that was all Will's doing. Bran tried to ignore it, Will knew, to pretend it did not exist.

If Bran did not remember the events, their trip to the Lost Land, and his claiming of the crystal sword Eirias or anything else, at least a part of him still did seem to remember what they had been to each other - the loving bonds.

"You must have had a brilliant teacher," Bran said. His tone made the statement almost a question.

"Yes," said Will. He wanted nothing more than to grab Bran and shake him until all his memories would have been restored, to bridge the distance between them and tell Bran of all that he had done, all that he had sacrificed to be here now, with Will, rather than with the man who was Bran's father by blood, even if he had not been the one to raise him. "The very best."

Bran waited, his expression more stubborn than patient.

Will wondered if Bran would even believe him, if Will were to tell him. Stephen had, once, or seemed to, at any rate, before Will had decided to take away his memory of having been told, to go back to being Stephen's little brother and nothing more or other than that.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Bran said. "Only it feels like there's a lot you don't want to tell me, and it's getting on my nerves a bit. You can leave, you know. Then you wouldn't have to be around me anymore. You might like that better."

Will almost asked if Bran would like that better, too. Saying, "I'm sorry," instead didn't feel much better.

"For not completely mangling my name? Don't be sorry about _that_." Bran grinned at him, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, as if he had only been teasing Will a little. "It's nice."

Perhaps, Will thought, it would have been better to leave after all, to stop being so selfish and consider what would be best for Bran, what would make Bran happier.

"I'm sorry if I ever gave you the feeling I'm not here because I want to be," he said. "I do. You are someone who is important to me. Possibly the most important person in the world."

Bran took off his glasses. He was no longer the Pendragon, could not remember being kingly and regal and commanding, but as he stared at Will, his gaze still held an echo of that power - or perhaps it was only that Will remembered it, and saw what had once been there. "Possibly?"

Will felt easier all of a sudden. He might not undo what had been done, and for good reason, but on ths one subject, he might at least be honest and speak the truth. "Very probably," he said.

"That's only a little bit better," Bran said. "You're not going to get very far with someone by telling them you might possibly be in love with them, you know."

"I think I've been doing all right till now," Will said, stung and yet wanting to laugh for the joy of it at the same time, to have the emotion he felt thus named, and in the naming, accepted.

"You should tell me I'm the most beautiful thing you've ever set eyes on. Like a sunrise," Bran said.

"I've seen some very pretty sunrises." Will grinned as Bran scowled at him.

"Well, at the very least you could agree that I'm brilliant, for teaching you proper Welsh pronunciation. I mean, if you won't remind me of all the other stuff, that's not something the Light's got any business of wanting me to forget, is it? And even if they did, I don't see why they would have the right. And they've gone, anyway, so it hardly matters anymore what they want."

Bran looked at him defiantly, his breath coming out in short, angry bursts.

Will felt a number of arguments arrange himself in his mind. Bran would be happier, in the long run, for having forgotten what power he had once held, for viewing himself as nothing more than an ordinary boy, with an ordinary life to look forwards to, raised by an ordinary man who was his father - except that Will knew, deep down, that Bran had never been ordinary.

Even when Will had met him first, not knowing anything of Bran's identity or the role he was to play, he had known that Bran was not ordinary. More: Bran had known it as well.

"Not all of the Light have gone," he said.

"I dare you to try and take away my memories," Bran said, looking more like his true father than Will had ever seen him. "I dare you to do that and still call yourself my friend, Will Stanton."

Will shivered. He had thought that for Bran to forget him would be the worst loss possible, but he knew now that it would be this, that if he brought himself to do this thing for the Light, it would be the ending of what ever had been, or was, or might have grown been him and Bran, and the doing would have been entirely his own.

"I never meant you ill," he whispered. It sounded like an excuse, an evasion even to his own ears. "I only - "

Bran snorted, a not quite ordinary boy again. "You were only being an ass."

If it was not quite forgiveness, it came close enough that Will chose not to squabble. "Well. If that's how you're going to be, I suppose I might as well confess that I have seen a sunrise or two less pretty than you. Mind, being an ass, my taste may be a bit suspect."

"I'd say so, yes," Bran said. He sounded only a little mollified. "Still, if you can be taught to speak proper Welsh, who knows what else may be possible?"

Will bit his lip. Bran's mood had shifted, and it was tempting to leave these other things behind them, but he wanted to know, and he thought perhaps it would be best to talk of them now, rather than later. "What - do you remember it all, then? Everything? All this time?"

"I wanted to see what you would do," Bran said softly. "If you would - " _Remind me,_ he left unsaid. _Try to stop it from happening._

"But I didn't," Will said.

"Well, you didn't leave, either," Bran said. "So I figured that was something, even if it wasn't much. Enough to give you a chance, at least. After all, you're English. One cannot expect the world."

"If I could, I would happily gift you it," Will said, impulsively.

Bran chuckled. "Ass. What use would I have for the world? Just ... don't do that again, Will. I am who and what I am. I would not want to be anything else."

"On my name and on my power, I swear," Will said, then blushed as Bran rolled his eyes.

"Well. It will be nice to stop pretending, I suppose," Bran said.

"It will be nice to stop being fooled," Will said, a bit tartly.

Bran laughed, and after a moment, Will joined in, won over by the day and the beauty of the valley and the knowledge that perhaps the Light had not yet gone so far out of the world as he had thought.


End file.
